Alameda County · Trading Up
Trading Up in Alameda County
Two transactions, one plan. The sequencing gets decided with your numbers before anything lists.
A common Alameda County move
This county produces a lot of move-up transactions, because it has both the condominiums people start in and the houses they move to. Frequently that whole journey happens inside twenty minutes of driving.
Which means the complication is rarely finding the next place. It is that you have to sell something and buy something, and the order decides your risk and your money.
Buy first, or sell first
Buy first and you move once, your offers are not contingent, and you are not living somewhere temporary. The cost is carrying both for a period, and that exposure has to be genuinely affordable rather than theoretically survivable.
Sell first and you know exactly what you have to spend, you carry no double cost, and you buy clean. The cost is the gap, which usually means a rent-back from your buyer or an interim place.
There is no universal answer. There is an answer for your equity, your current rate, and how much uncertainty you can sleep through.
If you are selling a condominium
Worth knowing early: a condominium sale can be affected by things outside your unit. Buyers' lenders look at the building, not just the apartment, and a building with financing complications can narrow your buyer pool without anything being wrong with your home.
That is checkable in advance, and checking it before you list is a great deal better than discovering it in week three.
Both halves, one plan
Your sale runs on the full six-step launch, because the sale funding your purchase is not a side project. The method is on the How I Sell page, and the starting point is a real valuation.
More on Alameda County.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make my offer contingent on selling my condo?
You can, and it weakens the offer in a competitive situation. Whether that matters depends on the specific property and how much competition it has.
What could complicate selling my condo?
Building-level issues rather than unit-level ones: reserves, litigation, or the proportion of owner-occupied units, all of which can affect a buyer's financing. It is checkable before you list.
Alameda County
What trading up looks like in Alameda County
Kate's home county. She lives in Alameda and has worked this side of the bay since 2006.
Alameda County covers a lot of very different markets. The island city of Alameda behaves nothing like Fremont, and Fremont behaves nothing like Berkeley.
- The homes
- Everything from pre-war housing in the inner East Bay, through post-war suburban stock down the 880 corridor, to newer construction in the Tri-Valley. Roughly forty miles end to end.
- Why people choose it
- Buyers who want Bay Area access without San Francisco or Silicon Valley prices, and who are willing to trade a bridge, a tube, a BART ride or a ferry for it.
- Getting around
- Multiple BART lines, ferry service to San Francisco from the western side, the 880 along the bay, and the 580 and 680 serving the Tri-Valley.
- Nearby
- Alameda, Oakland, Berkeley, Fremont, Hayward, San Leandro, Castro Valley, San Lorenzo, and the Tri-Valley cities of Dublin, Pleasanton and Livermore.
The method
How we do it in Alameda County
Trading Up: keep exploring
Ready to make your move with Kate Fomina?